ATP Live Screensaver

Attention all the ATP fans. Here is the ATP Live Screensaver to rock your Desktop.

The ATP Live! Screensaver will download the latest photos, videos and schedules from Tour stops worldwide and spotlighting the hottest players in action. Updates are made automatically to the Screensaver.

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Federer One Of The Best-Paid Young Celebs

Swiss tennis star Roger Federer is at No. 5 Rank in Forbes Magazine's latest list of Best-Paid Celebs Under 30, earning a total of $35 million from on-court prize money and sponsorship deals added together.

The Swiss, who who earned a handsome amount of $10.1 million in prize money during the year 2007 with victories at three of the four majors, earned an additional $25 million from his endorsements with Nike, Gillette, Mercedes-Benz, Wilson, and Swiss companies Emmi and Jura.

Earlier this year, Forbes placed Federer at No. 23 in its Celebrity top 100 rankings recognizing the world's most powerful and highest-paid celebrities. Oprah Winfrey came in at No. 1, followed by Tiger Woods, Angelina Jolie, Knowles and David Beckham.

Federer is the all-time ATP leader in career prize money, with earnings of $44.5 million to date. He overtook Pete Sampras's mark of $43 million this past October at Masters Series Madrid.

Maria Sharapova, the highest-paid sportswoman endorser, joined Federer as the only other tennis player in the Top 10 with her reported earnings of $26 million placing her at No. 7. Serena and Venus Williams finished at No. 11 and 12 respectively.

Beyonce Knowles finished as the Best-Paid Celeb Under 30 with $80 million in earnings last year, nearly double the amount of Justin Timberlake at No. 2 ($44 million). NBA stars Kobe Bryant ($39 million) and LeBron James ($38 million) followed the two singers on the power list.

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ATP World Tour 2009 Official Calendar

The official calendar of ATP World Tour is out now and its featuring players from 12 different countries. The price is just $13.

ATP Pro's Tommy Robredo, Fernando Gonzalez, Tommy Haas, Marcos Baghdatis, Tomas Berdych, Fernando Verdasco, Ivan Ljubicic, Juan Monaco, Michael Youzhny, Paradorn Srichaphan, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Dmitry Tursunov and the Bryan brothers are featuring in the calender. You can buy it at tennis warehouse.com or here is the link

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageGRANGE-ATPCAL09.html?from=atp

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Spain Down Argentina To Win Davis Cup Final

Spaniard Fernando Verdasco beat Argentine Jose Acasuso 6-3, 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the 4th rubber of the tie to clinch 2008 Davis Cup World Group final for Spain. This is for the 3rd time that Spain has won the ITF Mens team tennis championship.

Verdasco vame back from 2 sets to 1 down to win the match and improved to a 9-6 Davis Cup record since making his debut versus the Slovak Republic in 2006

This is also for the first time that Spain has won the Davis Cup title on foreign soil with the previous two wins coming on home soil in 2000 and 2004. Spain also becomes the seventh nation to win the Davis Cup title three times or more.

Spain was the underdog after suffering the blow of World No. 1 Rafael Nadal being declared unfit to play, they - captained by Emilio Sanchez - rallied to produce a weekend of enthralling tennis to upset the home nation and become the first team to win a Davis Cup tie in Argentina since 1998.

Lopez had leveled the tie for the visitors on Friday with victory over Argentine No. 1 Juan Martin del Potro after David Ferrer had fallen in the first rubber to David Nalbandian. In Saturday’s doubles, Lopez and Verdasco combined for a four sets victory over Agustin Calleri and Nalbandian to give Spain the final day advantage. The fifth rubber - scheduled to be between Nalbandian and Lopez - was not played.

The Argentine, in devastated tears after the match, unfortunately becomes the first man to lose two decisive fifth rubbers in a Davis Cup final, having also succumbed to Marat Safin in five sets in 2006. He had the mental tenacity during this match, and had saved a match point at 1-5 30-40 down, but he simply ran out of gas and at one point after losing the fourth set, had the trainer out on court to fix an abdominal strain.

“There was a lot of sadness in the locker room after the loss," said Acasuso after the match, "and the fact that three of the four of us lost to Russia two years ago means that the pain was double.”

It’s a devastating blow for the Argentines who came into this final as the firm favourites following the withdrawal of the injured Nadal. What the defeat has left is an unbeaten record in tatters and a shell-shocked team who will need a long time to reform and recuperate as a unit, ready to start all over again in the first round ties in March. But this time it will be without Alberto Mancini, who announced he will now step down as Argentine captain.

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Madrid Masters (Quarterfinals)

Federer-Murray To Clash in US Open Final Rematch

Second seed and 2006 titlist Roger Federer of Switzerland set up a repeat of last month’s US Open final against Scottish No. 4 seed Andy Murray at the Mutua Madrilena Masters Madrid on Friday.

Federer (pictured left) improved to 17-3 at the ATP Masters Series event after beating No. 9 seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-3, 6-3 in 89 minutes. The Swiss superstar won 72 per cent of service points and converted three of nine break point opportunities. He improved to 58-12 on the season, highlighted by three titles at Estoril (d. Davydenko), Halle (d. Kohlschreiber) and the US Open (d. Murray) that represented his 13th career Grand Slam crown. By winning his second round match over Stepanek on Wednesday Federer picked up 24,200 Euros ($32,248) to surpass Pete Sampras as the all-time leader in career prize money in men's tennis. Sampras earned $43,280,489 during his outstanding career and Federer came into Madrid with $43,268,419.

Del Potro began the match serving big, but Federer said that he didn't panic."I think he started off playing great, serving many aces... (but) I have the ability to stay calm and wait for my chance. I know that the guy won´t serve four aces per game against me, so I will always hang in there. From the baseline I played well, I used my slice well, which is a good option here in Madrid where the conditions are pretty quick. He was pretty predictable for me, which was obviously a big bonus. When I had to, I played well and served well."

Watch Federer's post-match interview


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Del Potro, who stands at No. 8 in the ATP 2008 Race just one point behind No. 7-placed David Ferrer of Spain, struck 12 aces but struggled for consistency against the serve and forehand dominated game of Federer. The 20-year-old Tandil resident has enjoyed a stellar season, which includes four straight ATP titles at Stuttgart (d. Gasquet), Kitzbuhel (d. Melzer), Washington (d. Troicki) and Los Angeles (d. Roddick) prior to a quarterfinal exit at the US Open (l. to Murray) that snapped a 23-match winning streak. Two weeks ago, he reached the Tokyo quarterfinals (l. Berdych). He dropped to a 41-11 season record.

Murray (pictured right) produced a master class performance in his quarterfinal clash in the first singles match of the day. The Scot improved to 46-14 on the season, after beating Gael Monfils — last week's Vienna finalist (l. to Petzschner) — 6-2, 6-2 in 68 minutes on Pista Central. The pair was meeting for the first time since 2006 Roland Garros. Murray improved to 9-1 against Frenchmen in 2008.

“I’ve been playing great in practice and hopefully I can keep doing it in matches,” said Murray. “I’m not putting a whole lump of pressure on myself to win every time, I’m just going out and playing and playing well because of that. Playing against Federer is always a great challenge. I’ve played well against him in the past, apart from at the US Open, which wasn’t so good. I’ll definitely be much more relaxed tomorrow than in New York.

“I plan on playing better than in New York. I wasn’t particularly happy with how I played. I’m definitely much better prepared to play him tomorrow if I have to. In the US Open, it was tough playing Nadal on two consecutive days to then have to play Federer in my first Slam final, is not the best way to go up against him. But here I’ve had quick matches and he’s probably going to have a tough one today and hopefully tomorrow, I’ll play better.”

The 21-year-old Murray, who qualified for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai — the prestigious circuit-ending finale in November — after finishing runner-up to Federer at Flushing Meadows, added 20 points to his 2008 ATP Race total by reaching the Madrid semifinals for the first time. Murray has captured three ATP titles at Doha (d. Wawrinka), Marseille (d. Ancic) and ATP Masters Series Cincinnati (d. Djokovic) and is currently placed No. 4 in the ATP 2008 Race on 565 points — 349 points behind No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The 22-year-old Monfils, who moved up two places to No. 14 in the ATP 2008 Race this week, dropped to 29-16 on the season.

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